(Press-News.org) Discussions surrounding race and racism are prevalent in an online community in which users can hide their own race, gender and any other identifying information. Russell Spiker, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Sociology, will presented his research at the 108th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York, N.Y.
Spiker's presentation, "From My Living Room to Yours: A Grounded Theory of Typology of Racial Discussions on YouTube.com," examined English-language comments posted from YouTube's top 10 most viewed videos of the day, over a 14-day period in February, 2012. Twenty-three videos -- generating approximately 200 comments each -- were examined for the study.
The analysis found that 34 discussions from nine videos contained racial content. Spiker found that three major themes surrounding the racial discussions emerged: hostility, overt racism and racial stereotyping. Two minor themes -- claims of racism and racist slurs -- also were observed.
Spiker adds that claims of racism tended to originate discussions, but not characterize them.
Spiker found that themes of hostility occurred in seven videos and 20 discussions. Overt racism was found in five videos and 16 discussions.
Variations on a racial slur occurred in three videos and eight discussions.
Racial stereotyping was found in four videos and 14 discussions, but Spiker says racial stereotypes did not necessarily appeal directly to overt statements of racism.
Spiker says claims of racism, which occurred in eight videos and 22 discussions, were the most common theme, as well as how most of the racial discussions began.
Spiker says hostile responses were frequent in racially-themed discussions, including hostile responses to claims of racism and hostile responses to racism. "In the first, comments involved insults such as 'idiot' and 'moron' alongside evidence to disqualify the perception of racism as preposterous," says Spiker.
"In the second, responses to racist remarks involved insulting the intelligence and moral worth of the perceived racist poster, but did not provide counterexamples."
Spiker also discovered that hostility to racism and denial of racism -- seemingly contradictory trends -- were nearly universal in racial discussions.
The study also notes that YouTube guidelines explicitly forbid behavior that was examined in Spiker's study. Those guidelines forbid hate speech attacking or demeaning any group; predatory behavior such as intimidation or stalking; or inciting others to commit violent acts. Spiker also states that because of the massive size of the social network, it's "incredibly difficult to monitor all content."
As a result, Spiker says YouTube users regularly see examples of unpunished violations which in turn may loosen their own online interactions.
"Online hostility about racial topics results partially from the violation of norms of race avoidance and partially from the ability to express attitudes in an uninhibited environment," states Spiker.
Spiker says racial topics in social media arise in ways which are uncommon in face-to-face communications, opening up the possibility for a revival of "old-fashioned" racism (more often hidden in supremacist websites), acting as an anonymous public space where there is little insulation from racial harassment, and demonstrating -- through the use of racial slurs as insults -- "the idea of racelessness" that Spiker says dominates thinking on the Internet.
"If race truly did not matter in online contexts, the hostility toward the topic as well as the racial tension would not exist," Spiker concludes, in the paper. "Instead, racial discussions occurred in nine of the 23 videos and racial comments occurred in 13."
Spiker says he focused his research on comments surrounding the top-10 most popular videos because he could examine feedback without purposefully choosing videos with racial content.
"The ultimate goal of this collection plan was to allow for analysis of the discussions occurring in the most popular spaces on YouTube on a given day," Spiker explains in the paper.
Analysis software separated discussions into categories and also provided a rough estimate of how much of the comments involved racial discussions.
The study suggests that future research explore sites where Internet users were more likely to discuss racial topics, as well as explore sites where race matters and where it does not matter. Spiker adds that the current study focused only on YouTube videos and not specifically on YouTube personal blogs, amateur news shows and such.
Spiker also recommends future data collection over a larger time period, noting that events during the random dates that the February 2012 top video comments were studied (including the funeral of singer Whitney Houston and the Super Bowl) may have affected data collection.
###
From my living room to yours: Research examines race and social media discussions
2013-08-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Research examines how books can have a positive impact on a child's social struggles
2013-08-12
A new study out of the University of Cincinnati not only finds that parents feel responsible about taking action when their children struggle with social issues, but also that parents are influenced by their own childhood memories. Jennifer Davis Bowman, a recent graduate of the special education doctoral program at the University of Cincinnati, will present her research on Aug. 12, at the 108th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York, N.Y.
Bowman's study examined parents' use of what's called bibliotherapy -- using books as interventions for ...
Microentrepreneurs may be an untapped market for product design
2013-08-12
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Designing products for the developing world can be a hit-or-miss endeavor: While there may be a dire need for products addressing problems, such as access to clean water, sanitation and electricity, designing a product that consumers will actually buy is a complicated process. More often than not, such products — even those that are distributed at no charge — go unused due to poor quality, unreliability or differences in cultural expectations.
And yet, an increasing number of organizations, companies and startups are targeting products at developing ...
Illinois researchers advance understanding of schistosome reproduction
2013-08-12
Ancient Egyptian mummies revealed that humans have been hosting parasitic flatworms called schistosomes for more than 5,000 years. Today these parasites continue to plague millions of people across the world, causing roughly 250,000 deaths each year.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign believe that one key to controlling this destructive parasite is being able to control their incredibly prolific life cycle that can produce tens to hundreds of thousands of schistosomes each generation.
In a recent study published in the journal eLife, they ...
New IBS treatment shows potential in Phase 2 study
2013-08-12
Bethesda, MD (August 12, 2013) — Patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS-D, treated with eluxadoline achieved better clinical response and experienced more symptom improvement than those using placebo, according to a recent study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Eluxadoline, which is currently in phase 3 trials, is under development as a potential treatment for IBS-D.
"There is a critical need for a safe and effective treatment for IBS-D, a disorder affecting approximately 10 to 15 percent ...
Protein that delays cell division in bacteria may lead to the identification of new antibiotics
2013-08-12
In 1958 a group of scientists working in Denmark made the striking observation that bacterial cells are about twice as large when they are cultured on a rich nutrient source than when they are cultured on a meager one. When they are shifted from a nutrient-poor environment to a nutrient-rich one, they bulk up until they have achieved a size more appropriate to their new growth conditions.
It has taken 60 years to figure out how the bacteria are able to sample their surroundings and alter their cell cycles so that they grow to a size suited to the environment.
In 2007 ...
Tumor suppressor is needed for stem cells to mature into neurons
2013-08-12
CHD5 has previously been proposed as a tumour suppressor, acting as a brake that prevents healthy cells from developing into cancer cells. But the part played by the protein in healthy tissue, and whether this role is important for its ability to counter tumour growth, has remained largely uncharted. Working with colleagues at Trinity College in Dublin and BRIC in Copenhagen, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have revealed its function in normal nervous system development and as a tumour suppressor.
The recently published study shows that when stem cells approach the ...
Carnegie Mellon researchers say readers' identities can reveal much about content of articles
2013-08-12
PITTSBURGH -- Articles that people share on social networks can reveal a lot about those readers, research has shown. But a new Carnegie Mellon University study reverses the proposition, asking the question: What can be learned about an article from the attributes of its readers?
To find out, the CMU researchers, along with colleagues at the University of Washington, analyzed almost 3 million news articles and the public profiles of the people who shared those articles on Twitter. This enabled them to generate a few thousand "badges" that characterized the content of ...
Rice writes rules for gene-therapy vectors
2013-08-12
HOUSTON -- Rice University researchers are making strides toward a set of rules to custom-design Lego-like viral capsid proteins for gene therapy.
A new paper by Rice scientists Junghae Suh and Jonathan Silberg and their students details their use of computational and bioengineering methods to combine pieces of very different adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to create new, benign viruses that can deliver DNA payloads to specific cells.
The research appears this month in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Synthetic Biology.
AAVs are found in nature and commonly ...
Onsite colposcopy clinic improves cancer screening rates: Study
2013-08-12
TORONTO, ON, August 12, 2013 – Women who had a colposcopy at a sexual health clinic that provided extra support and counselling were 34 per cent more likely to undergo the cancer screening procedure compared to women who were referred to a hospital or doctor's office, according to a new study by Women's College Hospital's Dr. Sheila Dunn.
Although colposcopy is an important component of cervical cancer screening, some women, particularly those who are disadvantaged, fail to attend colposcopy appointments. However, researchers in the study, published today in the Journal ...
Mayo Clinic: Preclinical tests may lead to new approach to treat CNS lymphoma
2013-08-12
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A drug recently approved for use in multiple myeloma is now being tested for its ability to fight central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, a deadly cancer of the immune system that can affect the brain, spinal cord and fluid, and eyes. The clinical trial, now open at the three campuses of Mayo Clinic -- in Florida, Minnesota and Arizona -- follows successful testing of the drug, pomalidomide, in mouse models of CNS lymphoma. Details of the preclinical testing are available in the science journal PLOS ONE.
Approximately 5,000 patients are diagnosed ...